The messy fallout from the Bills’ blame game continues.
Reflecting on Wednesday’s fiery press conference, in which Bills owner Terry Pegula threw embattled receiver Keon Coleman and the coaching staff under the bus, former Buffalo center Eric Wood shed light on the wideout’s missteps after a fan pondered on X how the 22-year-old could recover.
“He knows he’s in bad standing in the organization. He was late to meetings enough to get benched multiple times. Its HARD to be late for meetings. Low effort constantly. He brought all the criticism on himself and he’s got to own that now. Still time, we’ll see…,” said Wood, a former first-round pick who spent his entire nine-year career (2009-17) with the Bills.
When a member of Bills Mafia came to Coleman’s defense, Wood relayed how the call-out was self-inflicted.
“If you can’t show up on time and give consistent effort then you’re going to get called out in the media. If he’s too much of a kid then he should have stayed in college,” he posted Thursday on X.
Coleman, a 2024 second-round pick, was a healthy scratch at points during the season — one that ended in playoff heartbreak Saturday and saw the firing of head coach Sean McDermott two days later.
When Coleman was brought up during Wednesday’s press conference, Pegula took the floor in defense of general manager Brandon Beane, who was elevated to president of football operations in the same breath as McDermott’s axing.
“Can I interrupt?” Pegula said. “I’ll address the Keon situation. The coaching staff pushed to draft Keon. I’m not saying Brandon wouldn’t have drafted him, but he wasn’t his next choice. That was Brandon being a team player and taking advice from his coaching staff, who felt strongly about the player. [Brandon] has taken for some reason heat over (it), but I’m here to tell you the true story.”
Coleman posted just 38 receptions for 404 yards and four touchdowns across 13 regular-season games.
Beane took responsibility for drafting Coleman, adding his “issues have not been on the field.”
“They’ve just been maturity things that he owns,” Beane said, according to NFL.com. “I give him credit. He owns, he doesn’t make excuses, which I appreciate. The crazy thing is at this time last year we kind of went through where he was trending up. He had the injury. We were a little disappointed at how he came back.”
Disappointment was the overarching feeling in Buffalo this week following another early playoff exit.
The disheartening scene in the Bills’ locker room following the 33-30 overtime loss to the Broncos in the divisional round was enough to move Pegula to make a change at head coach.
The Bills have already begun the process of finding McDermott’s replacement, speaking with current offensive coordinator Joe Brady and former OC, Brian Daboll, about the role.
Anthony Lynn, the Commanders’ run game coordinator/running backs coach with Bills ties, will meet with the team Saturday.
